The Jaguars need to move on from Blake Bortles
Add Justin Tucker to the list of kickers who have missed easy kicks this season. The Ravens kicker was 222 for 222 on extra point attempts in his career, so surely he would be able to convert the extra point to tie the game against the Saints, right?
Wrong.
This wasn’t the only extra point attempt that cost a team a win though. The Titans were in a position to tie their game against the Chargers late, and after scoring a touchdown in the final minute they were losing by just 1 point. Now in most cases, you’d send your kicker out for relatively easy PAT and tie the game up, but that’s not what Titans HC Mike Vrabel decided to do. Instead, he elected to go for two points and win the game in regulation, rather than forcing overtime and hoping to get the ball first. Sometimes when you gamble, it doesn’t always go in your favour and that’s exactly what happened for Vrabel and the Titans as they failed to convert and lost 20-19. Luckily for them, the AFC South is a bit of a dumpster fire so at 3-4 they’re still only a game back from first place.
The Jaguars are also just a game back of first place in the AFC South, but they’re definitely trending in the wrong direction. Last week I wrote about how the Jaguars could be looking to move on from Blake Bortles, and this week proved once again that patience is wearing thin in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars were down 13-0 at halftime, not impossible to come back from but not looking very likely with Bortles in the game either. After completing just 6 of 12 passes for 61 yards, Jaguars HC Doug Marrone pulled Bortles in favour of former Browns quarterback Cody Kessler. After the switch, Kessler completed 21 of 30 passes for 156 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Despite giving up 20 points, the Jacksonville defense, which has struggled over the last few weeks, managed to hold Deshaun Watson in check for just 139 yards and a touchdown. The only problem was they apparently forgot about Lamar Miller, who rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown. With the win, the Texans moved ahead into first place of the AFC South with a 4-3 record.
Back to Bortles though, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before the Jaguars move on from the 3rd overall pick in 2014.
It’s no secret that Bortles is the biggest liability on this team, but Cody Kessler isn’t exactly a great replacement either. The Jaguars are basically stuck trying to make the best of a bad situation, but it doesn’t seem like this quarterback problem is going away anytime soon.
The quarterback that was initially rumoured to be a potential target for the Jaguars, Eli Manning, might’ve done enough on Monday night to stay safe in New York. Unfortunately, it’s because even the Jaguars probably don’t want him at this point, and I can’t imagine many Giants fans want him either.
With the game still close late in the fourth quarter, Eli was leading the Giants down the field and eventually ended up with the ball on the 1-yard line. Seems like a perfect situation to hand the ball off to their star running back, right?
Nope.
Instead, the 37-year old decides to try not one, but two quarterback sneaks, only to get stuffed both times.
He did find OBJ in the endzone on the next play, but left only seconds on the clock for the Giants to try to recover an onside kick and then make it into field goal range with no timeouts. So basically, awful time management gave the Giants absolutely no shot at a comeback.
The Giants have one of the best receivers, one of the best running backs and yet they rank 27th in points per game, averaging just 19.6. They now sit at 1-6 this season and things don’t seem like they’ll be getting better anytime soon. With no backup waiting, it’s probably time for the Giants to take a quarterback with their first round – and likely first overall – pick.
With the trade deadline coming up, contenders are looking to find that one player who will push them over the top, while others are trying to sell high. One Eli was traded from New York on Tuesday, but it wasn’t Manning. Instead, Eli Apple was sent to the New Orleans Saints. The cornerback was the 10th overall pick in the 2016 draft, but hasn’t always been a locker room favourite with many of his Giants teammates. The Giants are going into full rebuild mode, and the Saints added another piece to an already talented defense. But the trade that got the most attention was Amari Cooper to the Cowboys for a 1st round pick.
After making the Pro Bowl in his first two seasons, Cooper had limited success last year, finishing with just 48 receptions for 680 yards. Oakland has been disappointing this season, and Cooper has just 280 yards through six games. Getting a first round pick for him is definitely a good move for Oakland, but the Cowboys could still end up winning this trade if Cooper finds his stride in Dallas.
In case you missed it, check out the Week 6 recap here.
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